292-SYB-Colleen-OMara-Jessie-Nagel.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Carol Cox:
You’ve probably heard the expression your net worth is in your network. How can you build relationships and nurture your network? That’s what I’m talking about today with my guest, Colleen O’Mara and Jesse Nagle on this episode of The Speaking Your Brand podcast. More and more women are making an impact by starting businesses running for office and speaking up for what matters. With my background as a TV political analyst, entrepreneur and speaker. I interview and coach purpose driven women to shape their brands, grow their companies and become recognized as influencers in their field. This is Speaking Your Brand, your place to learn how to persuasively communicate your message to your audience. Hi there and welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I’m your host, Carol Cox. This quarter on the podcast, we’ve been focused on the theme of wealth. We’ve talked about how to go from a commodity speaker to thought leader. That was last week’s episode to 91. To generate more leads from your presentation, the on air coaching call that I did two weeks ago to increase in your speaking fees to using our framework to create a signature talk for both impact and income. Today, we’re focusing on the wealth of your relationships. After all, your net worth is in your network. If I think about many of the speaking invitations I’ve received over my career, the vast majority came from my network. This episode is to help you think and plan more intentionally and proactively about building and nurturing relationships in your industry and with other speakers and event organizers.
Carol Cox:
My guests are Colleen O’Mara and Jessie Nagle, who are co-founders of Hiep, a PR social and branding agency based in Los Angeles that they started 25 years ago, which is incredibly impressive. As you’ll hear in this episode. I invited Colleen and Jessie on to talk about this topic because I’ve seen the robustness of their network in action and how much their clients and relationships matter to them. They are soon to be graduates of our Thought Leader Academy, so they also shared their experience and why they joined to work on their projects. For Colleen, it’s a memoir for Jessie, a nonprofit initiative. In this episode, we talk about what their agency does, who they work for, and how it’s evolved over the past 25 years. How Colleen and Jessie have been intentional about building their network and creating trust, specific things they do to meet new people and to nurture relationships for their business. They share tips you can use, and my favorites include Always Take the Meeting and the Power of hosting your own events, whether they’re big or small, I asked them each to share the most impactful relationship they have had that has changed their life and their business, and then they share their experience and the Thought Leader Academy and why they joined. Now let’s get on with the show. Welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast, Colleen and Jessie.
Colleen O’Mara:
Thanks for having us.
Jessie Nagel:
Thanks for having us, Carol. Great to see you.
Carol Cox:
You too. I’m thrilled to have both of you on because you are partners at your agency, which we’ll talk about in just a moment. And you’re also both going through our Thought Leader Academy at the same time, which I think is so much fun for you to be doing it together. And I can’t wait to hear about your experience doing it together since I haven’t heard until this conversation today. Before we get into our main topic, which is about the value of your network that you two have built so well over the past couple of decades that you’ve been in business. So we’re going to dig into that. Before we do that, Colleen, can you tell us about hype and what you do in your agency?
Jessie Nagel:
Hype is based in Los Angeles. We’re a PR, marketing and social media agency, and we provide PR marketing and social media primarily to talents behind the scenes in entertainment. That was really our first focus for clients, but we’ve actually expanded beyond that to consumer facing businesses in the past five years.
Carol Cox:
Fantastic. And Colleen, what did you do specifically when it comes to the business? What are your primary roles?
Jessie Nagel:
Well, Jessie and I both had client accounts, and so that’s really important to us in our work. And then we really manage the business itself and the agency and our team, which now includes about 12 people.
Carol Cox:
And Jessie, how did you and Colleen meet initially and why did you decide to start an agency together?
Colleen O’Mara:
Well, you know, you’re kind of I know when we talked, you were asking about important relationships. And certainly this is one of the biggest relationships of my life. And the way that we met was because I was a PR person and Colleen was the editor of a magazine. I won’t go into the story, but there was a little bit of confusion. And so at the end of this sort of bump in the introductory moment, I reached out and I said, Hey, let’s, let’s have lunch. I’d like to be able to do that so we could really get to know each other. And so I came over to her office and we kind of had a running joke ever since because I was on time. So she thought, well, she must not be from LA. Sorry, Los Angelinos because I arrived like maybe 5 minutes early, really eager and we have a lunch that was the start of a friendship first and then over time and in fact somewhat quickly we started building on this idea. I asked her like, what do you want to do kind of with your life and from here? And she said, Well, I’m interested in what you do. And I was also intrigued about her perspective being on the. Receiving end of so much communication. So we really started to hatch this plan. We were both at a juncture in our careers looking either at glass ceilings or at opportunities where we wanted to be independent as women owned business leaders, or at least that’s what we dreamed about. And so that was the start of it, and that’s how we met. And really that’s been the beginning of this 25 year career. And I’m really grateful for this chance encounter that became my life in her life.
Carol Cox:
That is such a incredible story. You just never know where a relationship is going to lead.
Colleen O’Mara:
You never.
Carol Cox:
Know. And speaking of relationships, so, Colleen, you and I met because we were in a book Proposal Academy Together run by Joel Hahn, and this was back we started in early 2020. So actually before the COVID pandemic started, we we were in that. And then, of course, the pandemic hit right in the midst of us. And at the time that we were in the book Proposal Academy, you were working on the book proposal for your memoir. And so can you tell us a little bit about what the premise of the memoir is, where you’re at in that stage of getting your book into publication? And then I’ll come back to Jesse.
Jessie Nagel:
Yeah, my book is called Broad Diamond A Memoir, and it’s based on my life story and experiences. When I was six years old, my father died tragically, and my mother and my sisters, they were kind of eroded away by that experience and they fell into depression and addiction, unfortunately. So that then at age 31, I married my college sweetheart, the only nephew of American singer songwriter Neil Diamond, and the dysfunction that I thought I left behind in my childhood family. Sadly, I kind of repeated history in my marriage family. So at 40 I took my three year olds by the hand and my newborn baby in my arms, and I moved into my own house and I began living my life at 40, really based on my own personal happiness. And so I hope the book is going to inspire readers of all ages who’ve lived their life based on someone else’s expectations. I hope it inspires them to begin to live their life for themselves. So this summer, the book is currently being pitched to traditional publishers, which is very exciting by my editor agent Nancy Hancock. She’s based in New York and Nashville. So she was with HarperCollins and Harper one for 20 years, and she’s just been an incredible person to collaborate with for the past year and a half. So fingers crossed the pitch is happening this this summer right now.
Carol Cox:
Oh, fantastic. Well, I can’t wait for the exact right publisher to pick it up and for you to have a publication date. And of course, I know you’ll keep us updated on that. And so, Colleen, I know you came into the Thought Leader Academy because, you know, you have this book that’s going to be published and you wanted to be working on your thought leadership, your signature talk. You’re speaking related to that. So we’ll come back to that. Now, Jessie, you decided to join the Thought Leader Academy, not because you’re working on a memoir or on a book, but because you have another cause that you advocate for. So can you tell us about that?
Colleen O’Mara:
I’ll take a step back. So in March of 2020, I and a few colleagues were going to launch a nonprofit organization. But we all know what happened in March 2020, the world kind of shut down. And so we started to develop what became green the bid. And it was really an evolution of an idea, which is a nonprofit organization, an educational resource, and a community that’s specifically founded for the advertising industry to transition itself to sustainable and regenerative production practices. So it was really, really targeted and specific. But what was interesting about the timing and the reason why I bring that up is because the community part of it became really at the foreground of the way that we design this. And it actually is really apropos of what we’re speaking about a little bit today. I know which is the network idea, because we as founders came together to really leverage our personal and professional networks in order to make and build this community. And people really needed community at that time. You know, they felt pretty isolated. Obviously, people were very worried about their business, but it was also a time of massive reflection and an opportunity for people to sit and think about what they could do differently in the world. And so it was a great moment for us to sit and talk with people and really to begin to design something that we could do to help others to do the work themselves. We have a lot of resources, we have checklists. We’ve done webinars since we launched almost two years ago. We host quarterly member meetings and we now have approximately 300 member companies, major brands, agencies, production companies and more that are really committed to making this transformation and are working on it together. So it’s not really about the founders and as much as it is about everybody coming together to make this movement.
Carol Cox:
That’s really cool. Jesse And that tees up going into the topic for our conversation today. So we are doing a series on the podcast around wealth and so obviously wealth related to money and finance. But also a wealth of ideas and a wealth of relationships. So I titled this episode Your Net Worth Is in Your Network, which I know a lot of us have heard before, how valuable your network can be. So let me go back to you, Colleen. Have you always been intentional about building your network, building relationships with other people? And the reason I particularly invited you to on was because you have been so great about introducing even me to some of your network, to women that you work with out in Los Angeles and give me and recommending, Speaking Your Brand to them like you’re so intentional, you’re so conscious about doing that. And I feel like it’s just part of who you are. But do you feel like you’ve always done this as part of your business?
Jessie Nagel:
Yes, absolutely. We’ve really built hype over the past 25 years, primarily on word of mouth and referrals. So we’ve always taken a really intentional approach to our collaborations and our contacts. And we really believe in quality because with quality we believe that you rise above your competitors. So we’ve had clients that have been our clients for many years, and we have clients who return back again and again. And I believe that Jesse and I, we’ve always operated in a very ethical way, and we didn’t even know that that was a term that we were operating that way. We’ve always asked clients that wanted to work with us to resign the agency they were working with before coming to work with us, and to hopefully take a little bit of a breather in between. We’ve never poached other clients from our competitors, even though that’s certainly been done to us. You know, primarily bless their hearts. Bye bye. Very competitive men who thought that that was the way to, you know, engage in business. So we believe in what we call hype karma. So we never wanted to do anything in our industry that was dishonest or underhanded because I definitely believe that if you do that, it comes back on you tenfold and it will backfire on you if you do that. So we’ve we’ve never operated that way. And, you know, 25 years later, we’ve been able to continue to expand and diversify the agency where, as I’m sure you know, the average small business goes out of business within the first two years.
Carol Cox:
Yes. That’s why it’s incredible that you’ve been in business for 25 years. And I know that you’ve continued to evolve the business as obviously the world around us and the Internet and online and social media has evolved as well. Jesse, what are some of the specific things that you’ve done in the past or that you do currently to build and nurture relationships for your business?
Colleen O’Mara:
It’s as you described, Carol, I mean, we really try to be intentional about it and and to really listen to what people need. Right. So a big part of it is about understanding the nuance of what somebody is actually seeking in order to either be able to give them that information or that assistance ourselves or to connect them with other people. You’re talking about these trusted referrals are the way that so many I’m sure your listeners probably are nodding if they’re listening to this now, because if they have a boutique business, they probably get the majority of their business through referrals. And really that’s a trust mechanism, right? You’re saying I believe in this person and I think this could be a good relationship for you, too, or for ourselves. And so that’s a big part of it, taking the time to be thoughtful about that and really understand where the connections would work and maybe not work. You know, some of it is about also nurturing a presence. So making sure that we do for ourselves as we do for other clients, which is to make sure that we have a consistent presence on, let’s say, social media and at events and so on, to be able to have that collaboration, meet new people, you know, put our voice out there and respond to other people’s voices.
Colleen O’Mara:
You know, being accountable to all of those things and being a part of the industries that we serve, I think are a big part of it, too. So Colleen and I have both also been a part of professional organizations and really leaned into that as part of what we do, because we want our clients to understand. We know where they’re sitting. We understand through their eyes not just because we’re good listeners, but because we actually have come from that place. And in fact, you know, I started as before I became the professional person that I supposedly am today that that I you know, I came out of film school. I wasn’t trained as a communications major. And Colleen was, you know, was a writer from probably day one who landed on the magazine side. And so we also came from the vantage point of the people that we’re working with, and I think that’s an important part of it, too. So really having that follow through, being a trusted resource, taking the time to really listen to people and then nurture those relationships with follow through, I think is a big part of what we do.
Carol Cox:
Let’s talk a little bit about the nurturing side and the follow through. I know that there are certain things that that I do or have done in the past or tips that I’ve heard about things like if you see an article or something of interest that someone in your network, whether it’s a client, a past. Fine to someone that you’ve met or had some type of contact with, and maybe you send it to them with a like thinking of you type of thing or this would might be interesting to you or could be. Virtual coffees, maybe in-person coffees again, which would be fun going to networking events. So, Colleen, what are some of the things that you have found that both work well in the sense of nurturing a relationship, but they’re also things that you truly do enjoy doing because I’m sure there’s lots of things that we could do, but we don’t necessarily always maybe align with our personality or what we would want to do.
Jessie Nagel:
Yes, we we actually have a few kind of concrete tips or things that we do. We definitely keep track. We have a new business report. And so we actually keep track of where the referrals come from. And it’s really important to ask those questions. When you do get a new business contact, we send thank yous. I think that’s so important. Whether that’s a hype branded gift that we send or if we know the person a little bit better, we might send a personalized gift to them. I think in the overly digital world, it’s really a physical gift or thank you card really cuts through the clutter. And we also have a referral program that we call the hype world. If we get a referral, we actually have a referral fee that we honor 10% on special projects or 10% of the first three months of a long term collaboration. And I think that that we do that with our friendly competitors, and I think that that really goes a long way because that gives people an incentive to keep hype top of mind as well.
Carol Cox:
Yeah. Thank you for sharing those details about the referral aspect of it. Colleen, what about you? Jessie So you mentioned like some professional associations that you’ve been a member of or maybe even have served in a leadership capacity for. Do you are you going to networking events? Are you looking to go back to networking events? How do you how do you also find new relationships to build?
Colleen O’Mara:
Sure. Well, I’m just starting I’m tiptoeing back in the into the real world and in fact, was recently in New York and experienced that for the first time in a long time, which felt, well, I’ll admit it was slightly terrifying, but also really wonderful to see everybody. One of the boards that I sit on is the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, and they had have a great event every year, a series of events, but this one in particular was an opportunity for people to come together and have some thought leadership around various topics. I was invited as part of the bid. They’re a big supporter of ours and I was invited to come and to help curate some panels. And then actually what ended up happening was my flight was canceled and I couldn’t make the panel that I was supposed to do. But a press contact actually asked me if I would be able to moderate a panel. So it was a new opportunity that fell into my lap. And I only mentioned that because I think we have to be flexible and nimble right now. But also you never know where these opportunities are going to come from and it’s important to be able to take advantage of them.
Colleen O’Mara:
So when you’re at an in-person event, of course it’s not you know, it’s not just about going and handing out business cards or trying to meet as many people as possible, but really try to make some of those genuine connections, which I really enjoy doing. And then I think committing the time when you can, if you’re interested in it, in participating in organizations in a way that you can kind of bring value to. And I say that like it could be whatever your superpower strength is, I tend to really lean into a lot of the philanthropic efforts that ACP is doing, and I love leading those. We do a food and goods drive and other things, so people kind of know that that’s my jam and that’s what I like to do. But there are other people within the organization that may have experience in other ways and producing, etc., where they can lend that thought leadership. So then when you’re coming together in these other ways, like doing a food and goods drive, it’s, it’s a way to kind of bond. And you get to know people on another level that then you can kind of integrate into business when the timing is right.
Carol Cox:
And Jesse and I’ll go to Jesse first and then Colleen, do you ever have you hosted your own events? And I don’t mean necessarily like a big conference, perhaps you have, but even like dinners or meetups at conferences that you’re at to bring people together, like to curate, to bring people together.
Colleen O’Mara:
Yes, we’ve done that a lot over the years, actually, either in collaboration with other organizations or on our own. You know, up until the pandemic, we really sort of even put it out there as having an events organization. That’s part of hype, and we still have that as part of hype. It’s just, of course, for obvious reasons, it’s a little curtailed. But we’ve we’ve even done things via Zoom. And many years ago we also had a film festival that we ran, and that was an opportunity to bring together the independent film community with the advertising community, to watch branded content, music videos and other things. And that was really a void that we saw that we could fill, that we enjoyed. That was literally about bringing people together in a space to Converse, Talk Network and do all of that. So I think we’ve really learned a lot from doing our own special events can be tricky, they can be hard, they can be super stressful. It’s sort of like I think of it as making Thanksgiving dinner and then it seems to be over too fast and you’re like, Where did everyone go? But I think it is an amazing way to learn and to be also empathetic to when other people are putting on events. What brings value to that experience? You can’t get a better insight into it. Right?
Carol Cox:
Yeah, absolutely. And I agree about putting on events. And yes, they could be very stressful. And but I always feel like you’re so glad that you did it either once it’s once it’s on in the midst of it or once it’s over, for sure. And I love that you all did a film festival. Of course, that’s so perfect for what you do. So for those of you who are listening right now to the podcast, think about for your industry, for your topic, for your area of expertise. First, are there I’m sure there are professional associations in your local community that you can get involved in. And then also, is there some kind of event that you could put on where you can bring people together so that you get to know them, but they also get to know you? I know that if I’m going to a conference somewhere like before the pandemic, I would go to a lot of podcasting related conferences and that I would host a lunch meetup on one of the days at that conference, and I would invite some women who I knew were going to be at the conference, but even some women who I happened just to meet there the day of and invite them to that lunch meetup that I was hosting just so that we could get to know each other a little bit better than just kind of passing each other in the hallway.
Colleen O’Mara:
I think that’s great advice.
Carol Cox:
So Colleen Jessy, you mentioned that, of course, you two meeting was one of the most impactful relationships that has happened in your life and your business. So let me go besides Jessie. Okay, so we’ve we’ve established that what is the most impactful or exciting or unusual relationship that you’ve made that either changed your life or changed your business?
Jessie Nagel:
I would say for hype, when we decided that we were going to open the company, we actually met with Jessie’s cousin, Michael Port, who’s really a visionary in our industry. He’s a founder of a company called Mad River Post, which was a creative editorial company, a national company, and he’s really a serial entrepreneur. He started so many companies over his career and we sat down with him and he’s really been our mentor for the past 25 years. And the first thing he said to us is always take a meeting because you never know where that meeting is going to lead you or where that contact’s going to lead you. And I’ve always followed that philosophy and I just thought that that was such great advice. And then he also said to us, Be sure to have an accountant, an insurance broker and a financial advisor, because that’s really those three important people are what your company kind of sits upon as a foundation. So whenever anyone comes to me and says they’re going to start their own business, I always I always share that. Wise advice from Michael Port.
Carol Cox:
Oh, that’s fantastic. And so I love this. The always take a meeting thing because it’s true. You just never know where something is going to lead. And let me let me ask you call me and then I’ll ask Jessie this. So if you think about kind of your calendar, like your weekly calendar or even monthly calendar, do you make sure that you’re carving out open time to take meetings like this, whether they’re in-person or virtual, so that you’re not like hand-raised like my calendar gets tends to get so full, which is like my weekly monthly stuff. And then someone I do say, get a request for something. I’m like, Oh my gosh, where am I going to fit this person in? Like, I feel like my calendar is so full. So how do you avoid that problem? So you can always take a meeting?
Jessie Nagel:
Well, I completely hear what you’re saying about a calendar. Mine is color coded and it is very full, but I think it’s just being open. You know, I just had a new business meeting this morning and I explained to these potential clients we’ve always remained open to new clients via special project, short term collaborations. And I think it’s really important to remain open to new contacts and new people reaching out to you. And just like Michael Port told us, you know, take a call, take a meeting. You never know where it’s going to lead. So I think that that’s what I do. My calendar is very full because I’m a working mom and I have three children that I’m literally juggling their schedules, too. But I think it’s important to just remain open to making new contacts.
Carol Cox:
And Jesse, what about you?
Colleen O’Mara:
Well, I think for me, one of the things that I really try to do, because greeting the bid as an example, integrated into my hype day and the day, like Colleen, where I might be also juggling some home life things, you know, all the things that we do as professional women. You know, I try to also think about kind of time zone and blocking. So with green the bid, we have members that are all over the world. And so sometimes we’re doing sessions, seminars and one on one meetings in the morning, maybe starting at eight or so for those people where the time zone is not comfortable or or if hype has a client that is in Tokyo, then obviously I need to think about that. Standard meetings with clients is very helpful and calling, and I really believe in that as part of our process to make sure that we’re constantly aligned with what we’re doing with clients and that we can connect with them. So we try to schedule a lot of standing meetings so that it’s that part’s not as flexible and fluid. We want to be flexible, but that at least we know, okay, this part I’m not I’m not going to accidentally double book myself because I know we always have this and I think that that is really helpful.
Colleen O’Mara:
And then letting people know, you know, you can say to yourself, okay, we’re going to set aside a time for Green the bid webinars to take place then it also helps just with scheduling other people because that’s a. So part of the consideration, right? It’s not just about whether you’re busy, Carol, or you’re busy calling, but now the three of us are going to try to add three more people. And so it becomes this wild goose chase of a schedule. And yet I know there are things that you can do to help that by just saying, like, look at a calendar, but life happens. So that’s kind of what I would say is, you know, my advice to people is sort of set those schedules knowing they can move and bend, protect the time that you need for your own personal space as well. But then you can say, okay, I know that Thursdays typically are a little quieter in a workday, and then a monday maybe when everybody’s scrambling and I’ll try to see if I can do meeting more of the meetings at that time.
Carol Cox:
Hmm. Yeah, that’s helpful. Jesse So let me ask you the question about an impactful or unusual or exciting relationship that changed your business or life besides Colleen, is there another one that comes to mind?
Colleen O’Mara:
Well, it’s interesting because like she mentioned, Michael Port is a big one because he was the person that really started my career. So I do want to do an extra shout out and I know that sounds maybe a little bit gratuitous, but, you know, he really was very instrumental in us being brave enough to kind of take that leap, you know? But we’ve met a lot of creative and interesting people, and this is going to be a little bit general of an answer. But you have to imagine that every time Colleen and I have a new client or every time I talk to somebody during the bid, I’m learning something really exciting about the way the world works and that person works and why they do what they do. One of our big joys and hype is that we get to talk to creative people about what makes them tick, how they see the world, and how they translate that vision into their craft and creativity. Well, that’s pretty much a dream job, right? I mean, I don’t I’m sure not for everybody, but for us, it’s a dream job. That’s why we’re doing it. And so every day I feel like I am I am kind of gobsmacked by the by people’s ability to, one, be creative on such a constant level, to be thoughtful about process. And then three, so much good intention, like at a time where sometimes things can feel really fraught or you can feel scrambled or crazy both either by what’s happening in the world today or by trying to tackle something big. But somebody might just say something really simple, but that you haven’t thought about before is influential. So yeah, we’ve worked with some incredible people boldface names, award winners. Those people are all so exciting, of course. But sometimes it’s really a more humble expression of something that can make you kind of stop and.
Carol Cox:
Think, Well, speaking of kind of like success stories, any referral or kind of client networking success stories that you want to share?
Jessie Nagel:
Colleen I do. I actually over the past two years, I’ve been looking for women owned agencies and companies who have an expertise that we kind of touch on it. Height But it’s not our sole area of expertise. And through that endeavor, I’ve created what I call partnering relationships with these other companies. So one of them, of course, is with you at Speaking Your Brand. When clients need media training, either one on one or with a group, or if they have a speech or a signature talk that they’re working on. So I believe we’ve made three referrals to you, so that’s been a big success. We also have a partner relationship with an agency based in the UK called Pumpkin and it’s headed by an incredible woman entrepreneur, Sarah Own. And of course we’re primarily based in the US and in North America, but she’s really got European contacts that we don’t necessarily have. And then we have another woman that we’re working with, Katy McCullough. She owns a company called Festival Formula, also based in the UK, and she works with independent filmmakers on strategies to submit their film festivals to film festivals around the world. So through these collaborations and partnering relationships, we’ve been able to refer business back in back and forth. And I think it’s been a really a really big success for everyone and each one of our companies.
Carol Cox:
I like these partnering relationships. So Jesse, let me ask you. So these partner relationships, what has Colleen described them? It seems like you identified needs that either that your clients had or that your agency just wasn’t going to fulfill. It didn’t make sense for your agency to to do that type of work. To add that to your repertoire, did you first like think about, okay, these are the needs that we have and let’s go find organizations or companies that could fit that. Or did these kind of companies kind of come across your radar and you thought, oh, this would be a nice value add for our clients?
Colleen O’Mara:
I think it’s a combination, yeah. I think that in many cases we did meet people and while we were talking to them, we saw them in action. We were like, Oh yeah, these people are really good at what they do. And Colleen and I are big believers in Yeah, sure. Try to learn new things and evolve your business, but also know where you can bring in partners that are going to be really effective because this is what they do all day, every day. It’s a terrible analogy, but I like to say that with the bid and with hype, you know, we could fumble our way through taxes. I think we capable of doing that, but we would far rather hire a tax specialist to do it. That’s what they do. That’s what they know. That’s. They’re all day, every day. And so it’s kind of similar idea. And then other times it is something where we see this reoccurring pattern, right, coming up again and again and we’re like, okay, this is something that our clients or other people really need and we need to fulfill on that. Similarly, it’s the same principle in green, the bid, right, which is really this pre competitive collaboration amongst people that in other circumstances could have overlap, but instead they choose to kind of unite in that space and be able to make change.
Colleen O’Mara:
Then refer to people. I don’t know how to do Spanish translation, but I definitely know people in that network that might. And so I’m going to ask them if they might be able to do that and then bring that back for everyone to share specifically for green the bid. But it’s the same kind of principle and we know that that’s really an additive experience. It doesn’t mean that hype doesn’t know how to do that. Instead, it’s like we can have keen people that really start to feel like they’re part of our team because we know and trust them and we really believe in them like we believe in you. So we know that that’s going to be kind of an integrated approach. And we’re not just referring somebody and then walking away entirely. Right. You talked about kind of practices that you could implement. We make sure that you check in, see how things went, how are things going? In some instances, we might be super involved in the process. In other cases, it might be a referral, but we want to make sure that that referral was a good one. So so we really also make sure that going back to fostering the relationships that that connection point is made throughout, that’s fantastic.
Carol Cox:
And I and I do appreciate that referrals that you have sent over to Speaking Your Brand because the people that you work with are fascinating. Like I, you know, they, they are so good at what they do and obviously they’re at the top of their fields. And I know that we’ve learned a lot from working with them. So it’s been a lot of fun. Let’s talk about public speaking, you know, public speaking that you have on the horizon and the Thought Leader Academy and why you decided to join the Thought Leader Academy, why you wanted to do it together and what your experience has been like so far. So as of the time that we’re recording it, you’ve been in for just a little over two, like two and a half months, so you have about six weeks left as of right now of the four month program. Coleen, I’ll start with you. So I know, like I had mentioned, we had met in the book Proposal Academy, so we got to know each other at that time. What attracted you to the Thought Leader Academy?
Jessie Nagel:
Of course, meeting you in the book Proposal Academy and learning about your business and the services that you offered. So I was really interested, but that was in 2020. So two years.
Carol Cox:
Ago.
Jessie Nagel:
We actually gave it to ourselves as a gift for our 25th anniversary, which we’re going to celebrate next month in August. Jessie and I have always tried to do something for our anniversary, whether that was like treat ourselves to sushi or massage or something to mark the milestone. And they said, Why don’t we do this together? So it’s been challenging. You know, it’s kind of like being back in school, but our goal is to build a speaker platform on our website for hype, hype, WorldCom. And then we’ve certainly pitched our clients for speaking opportunities, but we’ve never really pitched ourselves per se. We’ve certainly been speakers, we’ve been moderators, we’ve had those opportunities, but we’ve never really built speaker platforms and pitched ourselves. So once we graduate in August with our certificate, then we’ll be able to do that and add that to our our website and our services.
Carol Cox:
Fantastic. And what about you, Jesse? What’s your experience been like so far?
Colleen O’Mara:
Well, I think, you know, when Colleen says that it’s been hard, I think she means that both she and I have this thing where we really want to be a students. But we you know, it’s so keeping up with this amazing amount of work. I mean, it’s not I don’t want to make people think, oh, no, this is a hard process. It’s not is actually super joyful and really interesting. It’s so exciting to hear about these other women and what they’re doing and your framework is so clear. It’s just that I think we want to take it all on. And so that’s the part that makes us go, Oh, it’s hard sometimes, but it’s been such a good experience. I love doing it with Colleen, but I also feel like I’m in a bigger community as well. So it’s kind of this interesting connection point that we can bring back into our own lives, you know, really, really useful framework, as I said, and also tips that I’ve been taking away, thinking about how how can I not only apply that to what I would like to do, but also how can we apply that to what our clients are doing when they’re thinking about their speaking engagements that we’re pitching them for? What are some best practices they can have? So I really think of it, too, as being something that can magnify maybe even beyond that original intent. Yes, it was a celebratory moment for for me and Colleen, for for us to be able to bring this into our practice.
Colleen O’Mara:
And then obviously with her book, which I’m super excited to read when it finally comes out and celebrate that. And then with Green the bid for me, I wanted to be able to kind of hone and describe this process and also get people excited about this notion of what is your superpower and how can you apply that. There’s whether you’re somebody who is a great accounting going back to the tax person or whether you’re somebody who is. A celebrity. It doesn’t matter what you do. Everybody has the ability to make a difference. So I really wanted to bring that perspective into the conversation and learn how to do that well. I just wanted to say, for anybody that’s thinking about it, there’s so many different ways that you can apply this kind of learning to your day to day life. It really isn’t something that is just for somebody that wants to be on the speaker circuit because for me, I don’t know if that’s we’re all go, yes, we’re going to offer it with hype, and I think we will have that. But I know for some people, they have a really big design that that is where they want their career path to go. But whether you want your career path to do that or you just want to sit with some amazing women and learn how to have the confidence to speak your truth. I think there are lots of different reasons to come here.
Carol Cox:
Well, and that’s the network, right? The network and the net worth part of it. And I truly believe we when I started Speaking Your Brand, it was only one on one work, right? I was working one on one with clients and we did the majority of our work one on one with clients until we ran some group programs in 2019. And then of course from there and I now like the group aspect so much because, you know, you get the one on one coaching time, but then the group just adds so much more that only doing one on one, I feel like everyone would miss out.
Colleen O’Mara:
I think it’s a confidence booster for me personally because I’m seeing all these people. They’re asking questions that I might ask. You know, sometimes I can be shy. I know that might be shocking for some people that know me, but it’s true. Like in the moment, I can sometimes feel like, Oh, I want to ask this question, but I don’t know. And then someone else is popping in with the same thing. And it’s such an open experience and open environment, like there’s no wrong question and you feel that really quickly. And then I also will learn from some other people that are doing things, whether it’s Coleen asking a question about her book, even if that’s not immediately related to what I’m doing or somebody else that has a small business, that’s something very, very different from hype. I feel like I go, Oh, I’ve got to remember that. I got to write it down so that I can remember to apply that in some unexpected way. So it’s cool.
Carol Cox:
Coleen So thinking about your book that will be coming out, what types of speaking engagements are you most excited to do?
Jessie Nagel:
Well, that’s really what I’ve been meditating on and working on in the Thought Leadership Academy is how do I take this book, which took a year to write and know is a long book? How do I make that into a signature talk? So, so that’s my endeavor right now. And then I’m hoping that I’ll just be a little bit ahead of the game, because once the book is pitched and hopefully we get a publishing deal, then I’ll have an editor that we’ll be working with on editing the book. So when it actually publishes, and for anyone who’s published a book via the traditional route, they all tell me it takes a very long time. You know, I’ll already be ahead of the game and have a signature talk, so I’ll be able to take that out. Hopefully there’ll be a book tour and book signings and then I’ll be able to take the course signature talk and then pull from that depending upon what the opportunity is. So that’s really my goal. And then I also wanted to share with you something that we’re percolating on at Hype. It’s a new community based initiative that we’re calling Hype DIY. So it would be hype do it yourself. So there’s so many independent filmmakers and directors and producers who want to hype themselves, but they may not have the budget to be able to afford, you know, an agency like hype, either be a special project or to come on roster with us. So that’s what we’re working on. And there would be DIY tools posted online, but then there would be potentially a weekly opportunity with Jesse or myself or one of our other PR experts to talk about their promotion at the moment and what they’re doing. So if that happens, our goal is 2023 or 2024. Then you all heard it here first.
Carol Cox:
Oh, we get we get the exclusive sneak peek at this. That’s it. I love it. All right. So, Jesse, so tell me about the kinds of speaking engagements you’re looking to do. I know you’ve done some panel, panel modifications. Do you enjoy the panels or do you want to do you want to speak on a on a stage and do a keynote?
Colleen O’Mara:
Well, I do really enjoy the panels, actually, because I love bringing people together and having that exchange. So that’s pretty fun. And in fact, we do a lot of that with green the bit in particular because we do these seminars and sessions that we’re doing with a lot of different partners all around talking about their experience and also how it works. But I do think it would be interesting to try the solo stage situation. I did it once and it was this was many, many years ago for a conference called Mocean Conference, and I talked about individual branding and to how to develop your own brand. And this was sort of in the early days or people are kind of starting to talk about it. And especially in a freelance workplace in particular, this was designers, visual effects artists and so on. So how they could think about making themselves sort of available and interesting to potential people that were hiring them over and over again and what that meant. And I didn’t have any guidance to do it. I just watched a few TED talks, you know, and I thought about. It may have the sort of spotlight and use some slides for humor. And I think that it went okay. It was a massive learning curve. It was completely terrifying. It was super fun. Know all of the above. So I’m so glad I did it. I’d like to have the opportunity to do that again now that I know better how to do it and to have this kind of fuel and energy of all the stuff that I’m learning in the course to be able to apply it in a less ad hoc way, let’s say.
Carol Cox:
Well, yeah, if you have the courage to like go do that right, you can definitely go and and and do more of that for sure. That’s so great. All right. So let the listeners know, where’s the best place to connect with you? So I think, Colleen, you have mentioned your website is hype. Worldcom.
Jessie Nagel:
It’s hype. Worldcom, yep.
Carol Cox:
And which social media platforms do you hang out on most?
Colleen O’Mara:
Oh, we’re kind of on all of the all of the platforms, you know, Instagram, Twitter, etc. We haven’t done Tik.
Jessie Nagel:
Tok Yeah, not much. Our social media managers definitely have done Tik Tok and clubhouse, but I would say for us it’s primarily Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn. That’s really where we are. But the best way to contact us is really to look at our website type, WorldCom, and there you can learn about us and our whole team and our clients, and you can actually look at our clients websites, click over to their websites and check out that what they’re working on in film, TV commercials, music videos across the board.
Carol Cox:
Oh, so fun. All right. So I’m going to include links in the show notes to your website and to your social media platform so listeners can connect with you there. Jesse, Colleen, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
Jessie Nagel:
Thanks so much, Carol.
Colleen O’Mara:
Thank you for having us. And great.
Carol Cox:
Thanks again to Colleen and Jesse for coming on the podcast. Make sure to connect with them on their website and social media. Next week’s episode. My guest and I are talking about the true value of your personal brand. So we’re continuing this idea of wealth and then after that we have episodes coming up on attracting a diverse clientele, getting to pay equity for women’s speakers, and diversifying your business revenue streams with thought leadership. So make sure to hit the follow on your podcast app so you don’t miss these future episodes until next time. Thanks for listening.
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